Me and my co-conspiritors, Andy B. and Pat B., will be making 1 24-hour comic each on Tuesday, March 23rd, midnight to midnight. Yeah, it's early, but we have a spring break to use up, and us college boys work on the weekends.

SO, what does everyone think? Are you going to participate, early or otherwise? Is the 24 hour comic an exercise in creativity or futility? The world wants to know!

Actually, it's only me. (wanting to know, not making the comic)_________________I've decided that signatures are redundant.

Um... I'm contemplating, since there will be three people in the same roon, whether we should do it all in the same room.

The pros: We'll be together, so we can all listen to the iTunes and effect each others ideas, and instantly ask for critiques.

The cons: We might distract each other. For instance, what if one of us were to start the comic off very well? This might have a dampening effect on the moods of the other two members. We might annoy each other, or become irritable after 30 hours+ of conciousness.

And, this might apply to the comic book stores that are participating on APRIL 24th, 2004!!!!(sorry, Scott)!!!! Insane ramblings, or legitimate worries? Only you can decide!_________________I've decided that signatures are redundant.

Here at Willamette University. in Salem, Oregon, I'm organizing a 24-hour comics event if my own next Saturday. Unfortunately, this falls one week short of 24-hour Comics Day, but it'll still be awesome. So far we have at least 6 participants, and we'll hopefully have more.

Paul Winkler here, I'll be doing a 24-hour comic at Jim Hanley's Universe from Saturday the 24th (noon) to Sunday (noon). I'm not totally clear on who else is participating but I believe there will be Alex Robinson ("Box Office Poison"), Matt Madden (various projects including "Exercises in Style", google for him), and maybe K. Thor Jensen?

I figured that since I've done four 24-hour comics over the years, and got 2 of them done in under 24 hours (and went way over with the other two), I might give a few words of curmudgeonly advice to the first-timers:

Try a simpler style than you're used to.
Being cartoony is not only fun, it can be a lot faster. Take liberties.

Beware of heavy dialogue.
Lettering is slow, especially if your lettering is as bad as mine. On the other hand, lettering may be faster than drawing something complicated. Do one or the other, rarely both.

Shading is for people who have time.
Gray is for wimps!

Do you really need that background?
Get in the habit of thinking about it again for every panel.

Use really fast tools.
No muss, no fuss. Inflexible markers are good. Brush markers are tricky when you're exhausted, and they dry slow. Real ink is for people who have time.
Big fat markers are your friend. They prevent you from getting finicky.

Is the drawing vaguely legible? Great! Move on!
You can come back to it later. If there is no later - oh well, good thing you stopped when you did.

Go twice as fast as you think is necessary.
You might think, "I do an average of 6 panels a page. I need to do a page an hour. Therefore I have 10 minutes per panel." Nope! Something will slow you down. In fact, many somethings will slow you down. You can't predict or prevent them all. If you are just barely keeping up with where you need to be, you will suddenly find yourself way behind and it will only get worse. I did that on two of my 24-hour comics. They both went way overtime. It hurts your morale too, makes it harder to get all the way to the end.
The solution is to get ahead and stay ahead. Think you need 10 minutes a panel? Make it five.

Let things happen. You may find that in your rush, and your increasingly tired state, you start drawing differently, or thinking differently, or seeing differently. Don't fight iit. Be willing to go places you've never been, and don't try to force the direction! You're not making a magnum opus, you're participating in an experimental artistic process. Something interesting will come, and it will probably not be much like what you envisioned when you started.

When I first heard about this event, I was pretty gung ho to go for it. As it approached though, I found a slight conflict. It seems my professors all like to give these things called "finals" at the end of the semester, and this is uh... pretty much the end of the semester.

So, note to self: next year, find professors who like to give finals halfway through the semester. Or, something.

Anyway, good skill and luck to all those participating! And now, back to financial analysis.

Blogging (not very exciting, really) and posting images (more interesting, but server is slow and unreliable. Fastest way for me to get them online, though)._________________Good morning! That's a nice tnetennba.